Here is to making your fucking eyes bleed. So buckle up for the read, or fuck off, no matter to me.

I frequently go thru my collection and pick some band I haven't listened to in ages and commit myself to going thru their entire discography, or at least try to. Why? some might ask, I say why the fuck not. I think its interesting to see how a band develops, changes, or fizzles and fades over time. Or in the case of Motorhead just fucking die with your boots on, RIP Lemmy.

Late in 2016 I started going thru a couple different discographies; one of them was Blue Oyster Cult (BOC). I think the first album I remember hearing by them was "Agents of Fortune". This was about the time I really became interested in music and every kid my age was into KISS. At the time I wasn't a huge fan of BOC (yes I was one of those twats in the KISS Army) but certainly a few songs off this album made me sit up and take notice. Reaper was a massive hit at the time and I really liked ETI, Revenge of Vera and Sinful love. I pretty much wore that middle section of the album out pretty quickly. It wasn't long before I discovered the first 3 albums as well.

I don't think anyone except a raging fucking idiot would argue against the fact that the first 4 studio albums are the best and heart of what BOC was. More hard rock, less radio friendly polished slick drivel. "Agents" was the album that began the turn of BOC towards a sound that was more accessible to the music ear of the average radio listener. Nothing wrong with radio friendly or making hits, just don't sell your fucking soul like some heroin whore settling for black tar just to stave off withdrawal pains between fixes.

By the time they released "Mirrors" BOC had firmly placed a boot in the world of mushy pop/rock bullshit. One song on the album actually hits the mark and succeeds, "You're Not The One (I Was Looking For)". "The Vigil" completely misses the mark of mushy pop rock bile, and that is a great thing because this track harkens back to the early days of Prog Rock of BOC. The rest of this album isn't worth fuel for fire.

Many or most of the professional critic cunts disparage "The Revolution By Night" for its over slick 80's production resulting in an album well; that sounded like every other 80's radio ready piss. Tho I did like this album when it was released I understand the thinking that it was generic for its time. After recently listening to it again after...well lets just say years; I loved listening to it again and again a few times. Looking at this one out of the context of the time is necessary to redeem it. There are a couple really good tracks here with some better than good filler. Ok not their best work but far better than "Club Ninja".

Ranking the albums in a quick and dirty fashion, and rank relative to BOC's own work only:

1-4 Not much daylight separates these 4. They are all fucking very good and order them anyway you want. I do always encourage new Blue Oyster Cultist to start with "Agents of Fortune" it is the one that everyone should have, so I will make that 1. For me 2 and 3 are pretty much always listened to together.

5. Extraterrestrial Live (if your only getting 1 live BOC this is the one and only to have, the meat of their live shows)
6. Fire Of Unknown Origin
7. Spectres

Again this group not much separates them from each other good albums just a few clicks off the mark that would have made them BOC classics in the vein of those ranked 1-4.

8. Cultosaurus Erectus
9. The Revolution By Night
10. The Curse of the Hidden Mirror.

Each of these 3 have some average bullshit but they do have a couple very good tracks but overall well off the mark of anything mentioned previously. I readily admit Revolution By Night is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine but I am not kidding myself into thinking it is even close to the quality of the BOC classics.

The rest well lets just say it is a pile of shit and forget about it.

Final word: Like most bands who have a decent size catalog from this era (Pre compact disc era) there is a shit load of fucking remastered and box set works. Some of it really good. In this case I would just stay away from any early CD releases and go with the later remastered stuff. Most of the first generation of CD releases are so compressed and clipped they are about as lifeless as an overdosed crack whore.

We Do Not Desire Tributes.
We Desire Information.
We Seek The Worm Drink Who Has Lately Betrayed His Nation

cannibal wrote:Here is to making your fucking eyes bleed. So buckle up for the read, or fuck off, no matter to me.

I frequently go thru my collection and pick some band I haven't listened to in ages and commit myself to going thru their entire discography, or at least try to. Why? some might ask, I say why the fuck not. I think its interesting to see how a band develops, changes, or fizzles and fades over time. Or in the case of Motorhead just fucking die with your boots on, RIP Lemmy.

Late in 2016 I started going thru a couple different discographies; one of them was Blue Oyster Cult (BOC). I think the first album I remember hearing by them was "Agents of Fortune". This was about the time I really became interested in music and every kid my age was into KISS. At the time I wasn't a huge fan of BOC (yes I was one of those twats in the KISS Army) but certainly a few songs off this album made me sit up and take notice. Reaper was a massive hit at the time and I really liked ETI, Revenge of Vera and Sinful love. I pretty much wore that middle section of the album out pretty quickly. It wasn't long before I discovered the first 3 albums as well.

I don't think anyone except a raging fucking idiot would argue against the fact that the first 4 studio albums are the best and heart of what BOC was. More hard rock, less radio friendly polished slick drivel. "Agents" was the album that began the turn of BOC towards a sound that was more accessible to the music ear of the average radio listener. Nothing wrong with radio friendly or making hits, just don't sell your fucking soul like some heroin whore settling for black tar just to stave off withdrawal pains between fixes.

By the time they released "Mirrors" BOC had firmly placed a boot in the world of mushy pop/rock bullshit. One song on the album actually hits the mark and succeeds, "You're Not The One (I Was Looking For)". "The Vigil" completely misses the mark of mushy pop rock bile, and that is a great thing because this track harkens back to the early days of Prog Rock of BOC. The rest of this album isn't worth fuel for fire.

Many or most of the professional critic cunts disparage "The Revolution By Night" for its over slick 80's production resulting in an album well; that sounded like every other 80's radio ready piss. Tho I did like this album when it was released I understand the thinking that it was generic for its time. After recently listening to it again after...well lets just say years; I loved listening to it again and again a few times. Looking at this one out of the context of the time is necessary to redeem it. There are a couple really good tracks here with some better than good filler. Ok not their best work but far better than "Club Ninja".

Ranking the albums in a quick and dirty fashion, and rank relative to BOC's own work only:

1-4 Not much daylight separates these 4. They are all fucking very good and order them anyway you want. I do always encourage new Blue Oyster Cultist to start with "Agents of Fortune" it is the one that everyone should have, so I will make that 1. For me 2 and 3 are pretty much always listened to together.

5. Extraterrestrial Live (if your only getting 1 live BOC this is the one and only to have, the meat of their live shows)
6. Fire Of Unknown Origin
7. Spectres

Again this group not much separates them from each other good albums just a few clicks off the mark that would have made them BOC classics in the vein of those ranked 1-4.

8. Cultosaurus Erectus
9. The Revolution By Night
10. The Curse of the Hidden Mirror.

Each of these 3 have some average bullshit but they do have a couple very good tracks but overall well off the mark of anything mentioned previously. I readily admit Revolution By Night is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine but I am not kidding myself into thinking it is even close to the quality of the BOC classics.

The rest well lets just say it is a pile of shit and forget about it.

Final word: Like most bands who have a decent size catalog from this era (Pre compact disc era) there is a shit load of fucking remastered and box set works. Some of it really good. In this case I would just stay away from any early CD releases and go with the later remastered stuff. Most of the first generation of CD releases are so compressed and clipped they are about as lifeless as an overdosed crack whore.

Coming soon a TLDR post on one of my all time favorite Blues-Rock muscians and in modern days a woefully overlooked artist. Could be that there are just so many very good contemporary artist in this genre but Johnny Winter was probably one of the most influential artist in the Blues revival of the 60's and then again in the revival of the mid 80's early 90's.
The illustrated man himself.

We Do Not Desire Tributes.
We Desire Information.
We Seek The Worm Drink Who Has Lately Betrayed His Nation

Johnny Winter is one of the most over looked influences in the realm of Blues\Rock. On the list of 100 greatest he only clicks in at number 63 among the so called experts over at Rolling Stone Rag. In no fucking way should he be pegged that low on that list, even the village idiot knows Winter should be far higher than that on a list of all time greats. Just more proof that most critics don't know shit and certainly don't know or understand the importance of music history. Born and raised in Beaumont TX not far from the Louisiana border. Beaumont was fertile ground for musicians, a cauldron for melding together the sounds of a long line of flashy Texas guitar blues with deep south church gospel soul sprinkled with the influences of Jazz out of the crescent city of Naw' lins.

Johnny and his younger brother Edgar both started playing music at a young age and worked very closely over the years until Johnny died in 2014. Both brothers have albinism which is the reason for their striking appearances of extremely fair skin and white hair. The brothers started playing professionally before they were even teenagers. They did TV appearances as well as frequently played with their father in his dance band that traveled across the region. By the time he was 15 he recorded his first single. In the mid 60's Winter made the mistake of obtaining Roy Ames as his manager. Ames was a con man record promoter and manager of some artist around the Houston area. He swindled his artist out of royalties, released records without artist consent, recorded live performances without consent, promoted and took part in prostitution including underage girls, dealt in illegal pornography, and was just a general piece of shit. Winter recorded over 30 pieces of music for this scum on his shitty equipment and poor production work that resulted in a plethora of releases that marred the work of Winter for years. None of which Winter received a penny for. This would be just the first of many poor decisions on the managerial front Winter would make.

The fortunes of Winter would change when he left Houston and went to Chicago where Michael Bloomfield heard him. Hooking up with Bloomfield (the guy who encouraged Dylan to plug in at Newport) record executives at Columbia heard Winter play at the Fillmore East in NYC and signed him with one of the largest signing bonuses ever offered by an artist up to that point in 1968 or 69. Legend has it that the amount was $600,000. Columbia straight away looks to setting the ship upright and buys the rights to Winters first full album release "Progressive Blues Experiment". Gets Winter in the recording studio to whip off 2 1/2 albums in less than 7 months then off to the historic Woodstock. Under new management, another stupid fucking idiotic decision of epic proportions, Winter's management talks him out of letting the film performance of his Woodstock set be part of the original film release. Probably the most dumbest decision as more than likely it is a big reason Winters is over looked as one of the icons of that early rock history.

Shortly after Woodstock and the realization that Rock music was changing from folksy protest songs and saccharine tunes of love, Rick Derringer and Johnny Winter form Johnny Winter And. Not that Winter was every part of the protest or sickly sweet love songs, but Derringer was, and I think looking to move into something else, and Derringer was a fine musician in his own right. Taking advantage of the revival of blues as well as the growing market for a harder driving rock music, the balance of Winters edgy searing guitar with Derringers song crafting sensibility resulted in a run of some good studio albums and live performances that made Winter a huge draw for a couple years. Fame and Fortune and the drug of the times; heroin, brings Johnny Winter And to a burning flaming crash at the peak of their popularity. Out of the ashes of this period they had made their mark and laid the template for modern day Blues-Rock taking the whole thing to a new level beyond what Bloomfield, Dylan and Kooper had done. Winter had this ability to take well known popular songs and make them his own and in many cases turned them into his own signature songs. For e.g. Jumpin' Jack Flash, Johnny B. Goode, Highway 61, and Rock N Roll Hoochie Koo; all of these became classic live performances stamped with Winters own approach.

A stint in Rehab and a few years of music in the wilderness of mediocrity; Winters finds his way back to the roots of Blues music by pulling Muddy Waters out of recording obscurity to produce "Hard Again" and then with the same musicians record his own album "Nothin' But The Blues". Coming full circle Winter finds himself going back to strongly rooted blues music with his own hard rocking style of play to put himself on the pathway out of the music wilderness. Fortunately for his recording career he paired with the small but passionate blues recording outfit Alligator records with gave him the opportunity to record a series of very good records. Winters becomes a mainstay in the 2nd blues revival touring the country at all kinds of festivals as the main draw.

Unfortunately Winters suffered a stroke in 2000 and was never the same as a live performer as he played mainly seated and lost his dynamic energy to front a band. In the studio the stroke resulted in his singing voice changing to just an average delivery and the loss of those legendary punctuated yells and range that he was known for. Granted he wasn't blessed with a singing voice like his brother Edgar, but he had a unique voice that delivers blues rock in a way that made its mark and created excitement around his incredibly incendiary guitar playing.

We Do Not Desire Tributes.
We Desire Information.
We Seek The Worm Drink Who Has Lately Betrayed His Nation

This is what I mean about incendiary playing. The guitar he is playing is a Lazer and the sound on this is so different than the Gibson Firebirds that he loved to play. It has a lively tone and with the quick picking and fret work it doesn't seem to lose notes or muddle them. This is about the time I started going to see Winter play and this is the quitar sound I love the most from his playing.

Not one of my favorite set list, but a fine live performance given he is playing before the studio audience of OGW which wasn't always known for being raucous. What I like about this is the Gibson Firebird V he is playing. I love the sound of that bitch. Johnny said this was his favorite and he owned the entire line of that model, think it was 6 in total. He could play everything on that and the slide to boot and it gave him the sound he was looking for. Well at least until he changed to the Lazer in mid 80's. I recall him still playing slide on the Firebirds alot even after the Lazer.

Last edited by cannibal on Sun Feb 17, 2019 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

We Do Not Desire Tributes.
We Desire Information.
We Seek The Worm Drink Who Has Lately Betrayed His Nation

Now to the most important part of the Deepest Cuts on Johnny Winter: whats essential, good and what is shit.
What is shit is everything put out by Roy Ames and the dozens of label names he used to propagate a pile of piss poor recordings. These include but are not limited to labels, Relix, Buddah, Janus, Home Cooking, Voxx and Collectables.

What is essential for the audiophile collector who loves great music and not in any particular order other than chronological:

1. Progressive Blues Experiment: plenty of steel guitar playing with Winters twist on traditional blues and Texas blues. First time I got a good dose of steel slide playing and have been hooked on this sound every since. Stick to the original release or reissue of it. The remasters are iffy as some are ok others are way over produced. Some people like these others don't it depends on what your ear likes. Interesting that Winter never liked this album not sure why but he commented often on how he wasn't happy about it. A certain must have for the blues aficionado.

2. Johnny Winter: Blues abound and a few signs of blending good old fashion rock and roll with the blues to lay the trademark sound that would be Johnny Winter. A few tracks here would become regular staples of his live shows. Still one of my favorite albums. If you can find it it is well worth picking up the 2 CD Columbia release 2009, CD 1 original album "Johnny Winter" CD 2 Woodstock performance.

3. Second Winter: Winter hits his stride as a Blues Rocker bringing his brother Edgar in tow. I rate this one slightly above "Johnny Winter" as there is a bit more diversity in sound here with Edgar bringing some sax, keyboard and about a half dozen other instruments he plays. And yet again Winter shows his penchant for taking others songs and rearranging them to make his own, "Highway 61" as a fine e.g.

4. Johnny Winter And: His first collaboration with Rick Derringer. The results are a more radio mainstream friendly sound for the times. Tho the album has a bit of a dated sound it works for the time and if your a retro rocker this is one to have. Winter displays a versatility here that has long been forgotten in his work, he can rock the blues but he can also bring a good old fashion ballad. There is a reissue of this that is a double CD package containing this album with the "Live Johnny Winter And" released in 2004. Get this one as your killing two birds with one stone for the price of one stone. "Live Johnny Winter And" would be essential but it suffers from poor sound quality (due to the quality of the equipment of the time) but the performance is top notch and displays Johnny Winter And at its' peak and why they were in demand.

5. Let Me In: After several years in the recording wilderness due to heroin addiction and piss poor management this album shows Winter back in with a bang with a fine blues rocking selection with a star studded line of guest performers such as Billy Branch, Dr. John and Albert Collins. Can't go wrong with starting off with the track "Illustrated Man" one of my favorites and was one of his openers in his live performances for more than a couple years during the 90's. Typifies his work at his peak come back.

What is good: Thru the mid 80's thru to his death in 2014 Winter released more than two dozen albums that found him working his way back to playing more oriented blues material. I will try to limit it to what was truly his really good stuff. Lover of the Blues this stuff is what I would deem as necessary to a good collection in that genre.

1. Captured Live!: A scorching guitar performance. Sound quality not the best but well worth the addition as it captures Winter in all his full pyrotechnic guitar glory. More of a rock than a blues album. Almost makes the cut (And most critics and fans would put in essential) at the essential level but I did my best to pare that to as few as albums as I could.

2. Nothin' But The Blues: Winter gets Muddy Waters back in the recording studio to make "Hard Again" which was a brilliant album for Waters and well deserved as he had been a major influence in Blues. Seeing as Winter had a fine cast of musicians and the legend Muddy himself, they get back in the studio a few days later and record "Nothin' But The Blues" with the same group but with Winters leading the whole affair and doing much of his own material. Seems Winters gets back his love of performing a more traditional set of blues material. Certainly was a spark to bring him back as a legitimate music force but in the now in demand blues festival circuit that was beginning to ramp up for the 80's blues revival.

3. Somewhere in the 80's the Alligator record label was reviving the careers of more than a dozen blues legends and Winter found himself working on that label. He did 3 albums for them all very well done and a credit to the label and the discography or Winter. For me these are just a notch under the quality of "Let Me In" but if your a blues fan these are must haves for your collection. Or at least pick one if not two out of "Serious Business", "Guitar Slinger" and "Third Degree". Depending on my mood I rate these different. Right now my mood is get "Serious Business" as that has the short version of Sound the Bell and Master Mechanic. Tomorrow I might tell you take one of the other two.

4. Roots: After a stroke and refusing to quit touring and recording Winters comes back with another all star cast including Warren Haynes and Susan Tedeschi to record this album. Winters playing is in fine form, not his best but still damn fine. His voice is transformed into more than a servicable blues delivery but not the one he was known for. The last album he recorded was "Step Back" much on the same par as "Roots" but I rate "Roots" slightly better than "Step Back". Either way these last two albums he did before his death aren't the worst way to go out and proved even in a state of disability Winters could still be relevant in the last years of his life.

Notables: For the Johnny Winter fan looking to go a bit further these are some things to give a listen to once you made thru the above:

1. Barcelona Blues: A soundboard Bootleg from a performance in the 90's I believe with Winter in a fine mood to show of his chops

2. Live in NYC: a good quality live performance once again displaying why winter was in demand for live performances

3. The Bootleg Series: This is a collection of more than a dozen albums taken from Winters own collection of tapes of live shows thru the years. Sound quality varies from fair to excellent. But what I find interesting is his choice of things given he is the producer on all these albums.

Over 50 years of delivering the goods and well over 40 albums officially released this is about the thinnest slice of it all I could pick. Hours and Hours and even more Hours of Winter to discover that I have left out. Plenty of fine things on Youtube as well.

We Do Not Desire Tributes.
We Desire Information.
We Seek The Worm Drink Who Has Lately Betrayed His Nation

This is what I mean about incendiary playing. The guitar he is playing is a Lazer and the sound on this is so different than the Gibson Firebirds that he loved to play. It has a lively tone and with the quick picking and fret work it doesn't seem to lose notes or muddle them. This is about the time I started going to see Winter play and this is the quitar sound I love the most from his playing.

Not one of my favorite set list, but a fine live performance given he is playing before the studio audience of OGW which wasn't always known for being raucous. What I like about this is the Gibson Thunderbird V he is playing. I love the sound of that bitch. Johnny said this was his favorite and he owned the entire line of that model, think it was 6 in total. He could play everything on that and the slide to boot and it gave him the sound he was looking for. Well at least until he changed to the Lazer in mid 80's. I recall him still playing slide on the Thunderbird alot even after the Lazer.

bought his first album when it came out. Johnny Winter. lord, I wore the grooves out of that sucker.
The man could play triplets like nobody's business and he would throw them in everywhere. clean as a whistle and sometimes blazingly fast.
you'd snap your wrist off trying to emulate that with a flat pick. (which I tried and luckily didn't.)
Johnny was a thumb picker - bare finger guy on electric.

One day back in the mid 70' I was sitting on the front porch playing guitar and a station wagon pulled over across the road a ways with a flat tire. I just kept playing and watched this entertainment. small town. you take what you can get, when you can get it.
The driver got out to change the tire and after a while the passenger scooted over to the driver's side and rolled down the window to listen in.
guess who? yup. we head-nodded.
It was the one time I played for Johnny Winter.

anyways, the gibson thunderbird is a bass. you meant to write firebird, of course.

R.I.P. Dick Dale. A true American institution of music. His recordings aren't as numerous as some other influential musicians that are say, in what would term the American Cultural Music pantheon. But that in no way should retract from his importance to his art form. There are several reasons Dale didn't have the volume; struck with cancer at a very young age, music companies bossing the trends, an incredibly varied and changing music scene in the 70's, as well as a rapidly changing consumer taste in music.

Self taught and determined to do things his own way he created a unique sound that defined "Surf Music". A sound of staccato playing that in his head was the sound of the ocean or other things that he was observing or hearing. He truly was an artist capturing images in sound. This is exactly what made him great to listen to in his latter years as it was about painting images with music. In the early days he provided great entertainment in the typical early 60's pop music and punctuated that with his own style and cultural influenece and putting out tracks of unique flavor like the great "Miserlou". Much of his early work maybe a little "dated" but I love listening to this stuff especially when horns are incorporated. Short but sweet these are the tracks that showed Dale could direct and arrange music make it his own and make a mark, all without any formal training, just pure instinct as to what sounds right. He made music that was his own and that is what being an artist is about.

Must have for anyone interested in Rock history is "Surfer's Choice" or "King of the Surf Guitar". Early Dick Dale doing popular music of the time with his own flair that laid the boundaries for surf music. For me the albums that I go back and listen to most frequently are "Tribal Thunder" and "Unknown Territory". Both of these are a must have for any lover of great music.

So long Dick Dale and thanks for the music! Take the chance to give his music a listen; you just might find something you like and if not your more than welcome to tell me to "fuck off".

We Do Not Desire Tributes.
We Desire Information.
We Seek The Worm Drink Who Has Lately Betrayed His Nation